Wastes of Oz
by scarecrow20
Summary: Dorthy Gale never thought about leaving Vault 20 before her father left. Now she has to brave the wastes, good thing she meets three protectors in her journey to save her father and what's left of the world.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! Scarecrow here just to say thank you for reading my first story please be kind and fair in your reviews and you will be rewarded. How? you ask well review and find out and now for the ever present disclaimer! I don't own fallout (though I wish I did.) nor wizard of oz (again wish I did.) only this interpretation of the characters are mine. Thank You.

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Wastes of Oz Chapter I

War.

War never changes, from the age of stone to nuclear holocaust. War has changed the world during our rise and fall of power. War has changed the lives of many, such as the Vault Dweller, The Chosen One, and the Lone Wanderer. Now the winds of war have stirred again for one individual in vault 20, Dorothy Gale.

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Dorthy woke up from a strange dream of vault inhabitants she has never seen before and of people from beyond the vault. Her brown eyes stared up at the gray steel ceiling as if it held the meaning of life. These senseless dreams were . . . just that, without any rhyme or reason. At the beeping sound her pip-boy emitted, she sighed and got out of bed, "No use wishing for something that can never happen." Dorothy quickly donned her vault-tec issued jumpsuit and her own personalized lab coat. "Time to go to work," she told herself in a singsong voice that did nothing to brighten her mood. She could tell it was just going to be one of those days that would have her chanting in her head 'I love my job, I love my job, I love my job'.

Walking into the aeronautics lab Dorthy kissed an elderly man and said, "Morning dad." Her father was a small man with graying brown hair that was starting to bald. "Morning dear, I hope you feed Toto this morning," said her father with a smirk, "cause I hope he's not trying to eat the couch again this morning." "No dad, I fed him." Dorthy said with a sigh, rolling her eyes.  
"Good," said her father, "Oh and watch out hell-mira is on the warpath today, don't know what it is this time?"  
"Toto probably got into her garden again," said Dorthy "I swear that woman just doesn't understand, don't be such a nag and people won't sick their animals on you." "Dorthy . . ." warned her father.  
"Not that 'I' would do such thing." Dorthy quickly recovered. "Right," said her father, "just so you know."

Dorthy nodded and quickly got to work finalizing the design of her father's latest project. It was still in the testing stage and wasn't ready for a full test, but her father was certain that his design would work and would revolutionize travel in the wastes. Dorthy personally had never been to the waste but she had heard stories from merchants who stopped by to trade with the vault. Stories of the Vault Dweller and the Lone Wanderer filled her childhood and spent many hours playing kill the mutant with the other children. She chuckled at the memories of her childhood and continued working when she heard an uproar in her father's office. Elmira Gultch, Vault 20's sanitary committee president, was screaming at her father, probably about his use of hydraulic oil. She shook her head, 'that woman'. Dorthy thought and watched as Gultch left in a huff. 'guess dad told her what he thought, go dad!' Her dad, came out of his office with a worried look on his face "Dorthy I have bad news." he said.  
"Your fired." guessed Dorthy worried by her father's tone.  
"I wish," he said, "Elmira came by today to say that Toto has to go. where she got this crazy idea that he's got rabies, I don't know, but its a crock. But still she's got a signed order from the overseer, there is nothing we can do or say," her father sighed, "they're taking him now."

Dorthy couldn't stand to listen to anymore of this talk. Desperately, she hoped this was some kind of sick joke and Toto will be waiting at the door for her. she ran as fast as she could out of the lab towards her and her father's home. It was a blur of the different hallways that twisted and turned toward her 'house'. Her heart dropped when she reached her home and saw three vault security guards pushing HER Toto, her pure breed Siberian husky with mismatched color eyes, into a dog crate with a muzzle strapped to his mouth.  
"You, leave my Toto alone!You God-damn-mother-fu-!" screamed Dorthy only slightly muffled by a hand slapping over her mouth.  
"Dorthy don't make this any worse than what it is," said her father "we'll talk to the overseer and straighten this all out, okay?"  
Dorthy screamed some more into her father's hand in reply, but it was too muffled to be understood. Tears of frustration and anger started to coarse down her cheeks. Toto, seeming to sense his owner in distress, turned his questing mismatched eyes toward her. The vault security took this as a threat to their persons and brandished a stun baton to Toto's hind. A blue spark flashed and Toto went down with a whimper.  
Dorthy's eyes widened at the sight and immediately bit down on her father's hand.  
A pained protest came from her father sounding some what like "Dorthy" as he automatically jerked and clutched his hand to his chest.  
She ran forward and struck the first security guard in the jaw with a sharp right hook, turned and kicked the second, then tackled the third, landing a few punches before she was pulled off the guard by her father.  
"Get control of your daughter!" screamed first security guard holding his jaw and inwardly cursing the spirited nineteen-year-old.  
"just get the d- where's the dog!" shouted the second guard as all he saw was a muzzle and collar restraint on the floor, no Toto to be seen.  
Dorthy forcefully broke away from her father determined to find Toto before the guards could.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

"What are we going to do? Think! Think!" Dorthy whispered furiously to to herself. She and Toto where currently hidden underneath the sparsh brush in vault designated park. "Can't stay here too long, this is way to obvious of a hiding spot . . . what am I seven? I feel like I'm hiding under my bed." She paused mid-rant as a park goer strode by her hiding place. "I got it!" Dorthy exclaimed as she stood up and quickly ducked down remembering her predicament she turned to Toto and said, "We'll go to the Overseer and show him that you don't have rabies." Toto just stared at her with doubt that such a plan would work but went anyway to make sure that his master stayed out of trouble.  
Dorthy's knees were getting sore from crouching in front the overseer's door working to unlocking it.  
"Damn it!" she cursed after snapping her seventh bobby pin, pulling another out of her pocket."I've only got three left," Dorthy muttered to herself. Toto stood beside her, eyes trained on the hallway leading to the office looking out for security. "We're in Toto!" Dorthy whispered to Toto excitedly as she opened the door to find the overseer's office empty. Of course, empty: it was locked. "Figures" she growled in anger a herself and the overseer.  
Dorthy was about to tell Toto to go when she noticed a blip on the overseer's monitor saying he had a message. Curiosity getting the better of her, Dorthy walked to the computer and quickly hacked into the system 'Too easy really, the network security just sucks.' Dorthy thought to herself and found that the message was a notice that the vault door had opened without authorization. "Who could do that?" Dorthy wondered aloud when she heard Toto growled signaling that security was coming, again thinking quickly Dorthy hit the power button on the monitor and hid under the desk with Toto just as two security officers walked into the office. "Huh. He's not here." one of the guards commented near the left edge of the desk "Well, he must be somewhere nearby." replied the other nearer to the door.  
"I always wondered why the overseer had an affinity towards these stupid figurines. What point to they serve? An' why are they are children?" asked the guard close enough now to sound like he was lurking over her and Toto.  
"Who knows why, just quit playing with those stupid things before you break one. Everyone knows you have butterfingers."  
"Aw, man, come on. I was just tinkering a bit. I've never got the chance to before."  
"I'm starting to understand why you end up breaking everything valuable in you're area. You won't leave anything alone. Come on, we got to find the overseer pronto."  
Dorthy was about to breathe a sigh of relief when something bumped into the desk following with a crescendo of strapping sounds that could be nothing but the figurines. The sudden noises made her meep in surprise. Dorthy quickly clamped her hand over her mouth and Toto's muzzle for good measure although he seemed to sense that this was a moment that calls for silence. Toto since he was a pup understood situations as if he were a human, knowing exactly what was called of him.  
"Oh! Oh, shit!" cried the guard whom knocked into the overseer's desk as he scrabbled to catch all the figurines he had knocked off. "Oh. Thank God! I caught them all." More thunks and bangs above Dorthy's and Toto's head before going quiet.  
The guard near the door chastised his partner, "Your such a klutz man, now come on let's find the overseer! We have tell him Doctor Gale just left the vault so we will know how to proceed."  
The words hit Dorthy like a truck. She was completely shocked into numbness for a few seconds before the news hit home. "Dad's gone? But why? Was it my actions? Did he leave because I attack security like that?" Dorthy would have continued to fret if Toto hadn't nudged her with his nose and whined.  
"Your right Toto, sitting here isn't going to answer any of my questions or fix anything." Dorthy said as she got out from under the desk then said firmly, "Let's find dad." Toto barked in agreement. After avoiding security and getting back to her apartment Dorthy quickly started gathering belongings. Extra vault suits, food, bobby pins, stimpak stash (for the more dangerous experiments), and her personal recharging laser rifle. Dorthy bought it off a merchant for her sixteenth birthday and began to modify it for herself (reduced kickback and scope). She practiced in the vault shooting range often reserved for the security team but they let her practice for their amusement and even gave her a few pointers. After she packed everything needed, she and Toto snuck to the best of their abilities and avoided security as best they could. They made it to the vault's entrance when a security guard spotted them.  
"Stop right there!" he shouted advancing quickly and drawing a pistol.  
Dorthy despite all her intellect and maturity was still a teenager and reacted like any teenager would at that moment: ran like hell. Dorthy and Toto bolted for the exit which was just starting to close. Toto had made it out through with no problems but the door nearly closed on Dorthy as she slid out of the way of the two-ton barrier just in time.  
"That was too close" Dorthy panted as she felt and heard the door slam into place. Then she was forced to cover her ears when there was a tremendous crash outside of the cave she was currently in. Dorthy curious but apprehensive slowly opened the door she found after a moment of exploring at the end of the tunnel-like cave she was in to see.  
"What? Another door? Is this suppose to be funny or something? Well, I'm not feeling the humor here." She muttered darkly to herself, Toto nudged her thigh in response to his master's tone in voice. Dorthy shook her head and smiled before gently rubbed the husky's ears. "You're right, no need to be pessimistic! Onward we go!" Dorthy quickly opened the other door to find the inside of a house that had obviously fell from a great height. Splintered and cracked floorboards, broken glass, and furniture littered all over the place. Stepping carefully, Dorthy made it to the front door with Toto following closely at the rear. One of the ears on his pert head cocked as if he could here something he could not quite place.  
Dorthy caught here breath when she opened the door. It was a completely different world. She'd never seen anything like this other than in pictures and old books, which she was not suppose to know her dad even had. "I Don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto." She quoted as she stepped out of the house. A quote from the book seemed perfect because Dorthy never once thought that she would leave the vault to actually see different worlds she had read about. Children of all ages peeked at her through bushes and kiosks that somehow where still standing around the destruction of the house she was currently standing in the doorway of.  
"She did it!" one of the children yelled making Dorthy jump with fright as all the children in rag-tag homemade clothing mobbed her with praise and questions. "Wait, wait!" Dorthy yelled to be heard above the din,"What's going on here? Where am I? Who are you guys?"  
One of the children who seemed to be the leader for he was the oldest answered, "You're in munchkin land. An' you seem to 'ave killed the wicked witch of the East. Y'ur a savior to us all! What 'tis our 'ero's name?" Dorthy looked at him confused but replied,"Dorthy Gale."  
The children cheered and mobbed their savior. "Wait, wait!" Dorthy called for silence again "What are you kids doing here? Where are your parents?" The leader held a sorrowful look in his eye and said,"Don' 'ave any parents, we take care of each'ther." "So your all orphans?" Dorthy asked, surprised and aghast.  
"Yeah, but 'tis 'kay now, ya' kill the witch and now we won' 'ave any one b'heren us agin." replied the leader, "Tha' names Tony."  
"Well Tony, have you seen a bald man with a weird device come through here?"  
"Tha' flier thing, ya' we saw it, why d'ya ask?"  
"So da-" but before Dorthy could finish an odd sound was coming from the sky the children started to panic and scatter, the leader grabbed Dorthy and dragged her to the nearest source of cover, the house. Dorthy looked up to see a device descending. The kids knew what it was: Enclave Vertibird. A phrase synonymous with trouble.


End file.
